T-Mobile USA loses 77,000 customers as parent Deutsche Telekom sees 7.2 percent increase in Q3

T-Mobile USA lost 77,000 net customers in the third quarter of 2009, down from 670,000 net additions in the same quarter of last year according to parent company Deutsche Telekom's third-quarter financial results. Overall, Deutsche Telekom saw a 7.2 percent increase in profit to 959 million EUR (US$1.4 billion), up from 895 million EUR in last year's quarter.

T-Mobile USA currently serves 33.4 million customers and attributed its net customer loss to increasing competition, including handset innovation that drove customers to other carriers. DT's U.S. business saw a drop in APRU that caused operating revenue to decrease year-over-year to $5.38 billion from $5.51 billion in last year's period.

Deutsche Telekom forecasted modest recovery in the fourth quarter, saying that downward trends in mobile communications in the U.S. and Europe because of the global economic slowdown, along with "intense competition", would cause continued customer restraint.